News Briefs

Willtek Communications (Ismaning, Germany) has announced that its shareholders have agreed to sell the company to Wireless Telecom Group (WTT; Parsippany, NJ), the parent company of two other well-known communications test manufacturers: Noise/Com and Boonton Electronics. The deal is subject to WTT's shareholders' approval and is expected to close by March 2005.

Willtek, which has offices in Indianapolis, IN, manufactures test equipment for 2G and 3G cellular radio networks and mobile telephones. The company's Willtek 9101 handheld spectrum analyzer (pictured) was selected as the 2004 Test Product of the Year by Test & Measurement World's readers.

WTT's Boonton Electronics division develops RF power meters and sensors; Noise/Com produces noise generators, components, and bit-error-rate testers. WTT is also the parent company of Microlab/FXR, which offers components for RF applications, including wireless communications. www.wtt.bz.

SOCs. Research firm Business Communications Co. reports that the worldwide system-on-chip (SOC) market, which the firm estimates at nearly $14.4 billion, should grow at an average annual growth rate of 24.6% and reach $43.2 billion by 2009. In addition, the growth in the number of units will average 18.4% per year to reach 2.2 billion in 2009, and the company expects average unit prices will increase to $19.60 by the end of the forecast period. www.bccresearch.com.

Sensors. The image sensor market has shown strong growth over the last year and will continue to do so, growing over 30% annually in units through 2008, according to a study by high-tech market-research firm In-Stat/MDR. The growth will come primarily from shipments of digital still cameras, camera phones, and scanners. www.instat.com.

With a flurry of announcements in mid-October, Teseda (Portland, OR) introduced its OpenDFT initiative, through which the company aims to help manufacturers improve device yield and profitability while cutting weeks from time to market. The key element in the initiative is OpenDFT WorkBench, a software program that runs on the company's V520 engineering test platform and brings interactive validation, debug, and diagnosis to automated test equipment (ATE).

The Teseda tools support products from major electronic design automation (EDA) vendors, including Cadence, LogicVision, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, and Syntest. Teseda is also working with Advantest, Agilent Technologies, and Yokogawa to verify transportability of Standard Test Interface Language (STIL) DFT data between OpenDFT WorkBench and test systems from those companies. The OpenDFT WorkBench has a base price of $49,000. www.teseda.com.

Softwire Technology, a subsidiary of Measurement Computing, no longer charges for SoftWire, a data-acquisition and instrumentation application development package. SoftWire adds graphical programming to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET by letting you connect icons with virtual wires. It previously sold for $495 but is now available as a free download from the company's Website.

This is the second major change that Measurement Computing has made to its software offerings in recent months. As reported in our August News Briefs, the company discontinued its Labtech Notebook and Labtech Control data-acquisition software as of August 31.

When asked why the company decided to make SoftWire free, VP of Strategic Marketing Bob Judd said "We [Measurement Computing] make our money on hardware, not software, but hardware needs software to run." Judd also noted that the company will continue to add new features and provide technical support for SoftWire. www.softwire.com.

TDK Test Services (Austin, TX), a new division of TDK Corp. (Tokyo, Japan), provides evaluation, regulatory compliance measurement, and agency submissions for ultra wideband (UWB) communications devices. Customers can take their UWB equipment to the TDK facility, where the company will manage the regulatory agency submission in compliance with FCC Part 15. TDK Test Services will evaluate UWB frequency bandwidth, unintentional emissions from 9 kHz to 40 GHz, measurement of peak emissions in a 50-MHz bandwidth, and AC mains disturbance. www.tdk.com.

Intertek Group's ETL SEMKO division (Boxborough, MA) has formed an alliance with Product Quality Partners (QP; Pleasanton, CA) to offer a one-stop option for wireless testing. ETL SEMKO provides test, inspection, and certification services. QP offers wireless test services. Together, they offer services for every phase of the test cycle, including parametric, handset platform, feature, UI, application, and network field testing.

The companies have implemented an integrated method for tracking and reporting, so customers need only one point of contact for test scheduling and process management. The companies will also offer an online system for monitoring test status and providing reports. www.intertek-etlsemko.com.

Measurement Science Conference, January 17–21, Anaheim, CA. Designed to promote education and professionalism in measurement science and related disciplines. Sponsored by The Measurement Science Conference. www.msc-conf.com.

Wireless Systems Design Conference & Expo, February 8–10, San Diego, CA. Covers the engineering work that goes into creating, testing, and verifying the hardware and embedded software of a wireless device. Sponsored by Penton Technology. www.wsdexpo.com.

APEX, February 22–24, Anaheim, CA. Part of the Electronic Circuits World Convention, APEX focuses on electronics assembly processes and equipment. Sponsored by IPC. www.goapex.org.

Burn-in and Test Socket Workshop, March 6–9, Mesa, AZ. A forum for information about the socket industry. Sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, Test Technology Technical Council. www.bitsworkshop.org.

Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference & Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), March 6–11, Anaheim, CA. OFC/NFOEC 2005 will provide attendees and exhibiting companies with a comprehensive view of optical technology. Sponsored by Optical Society of America, IEEE, and Telcordia. www.nfoec.org.

International CAN Conference, March 8–10, Rome. Covers CAN applications, CAN-based systems, and connectable products. Sponsored by CAN in Automation (CiA). www.can-cia.org.

Call for Papers: Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference: WAMICON 2005, Abstract deadline: December 15; Conference: April 7–8, Clearwater, FL. Possible paper topics include 3G/4G communications, 802.11, and Bluetooth. Sponsored by IEEE. www.wamicon.org.

To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.